[essay] How designers use digital video technology to enhance a user’s interactive experience on different delivery platforms:

Designers can use loads of different types of video technology to enhance a users interactive experience in many different ways today however before the internet this would’ve been extremely difficult to do as it would’ve had to take a lot more time to even show a piece of video, whereas now with the invention of the world wide web anyone can share their media in multiple different ways and not just from the web but also from multiple platforms including probably the most popular smart devices such as the Iphone and Android devices, and since the evolution of media has begun now people are able to buy software’s and hardware such as HD cameras and editing software for their own media.

With the evolution of this kind of media and more people being able to access media easily big companies and businesses are able to use this so people are able to learn about their business from anywhere, whereas before certain media inventions/improvements it would have been near impossible to learn about a company or business in a different country, and using types of digital video technology such as videos and adverts means that designers are able to show more and more people what they do.

Probably the most popular media/video sharing site on the web is the invention of YouTube, YouTube first came onto the web in 2005 and in the 8 years that it has been online people can upload their own videos for people all over the world to see, YouTube made it possible for people to share their media worldwide,  even big companies now use YouTube to advertise their business, even normal people can become celebrities because of their video on YouTube a good example of this is “Gangnam style” this music video went viral extremely quickly so PSY has been able to become a celebrity just because of one video and is now known worldwide with over  1 billion views.

And even because of people becoming famous just from one video online or even being a viral celebrity means that they are known worldwide and some have even been used in advertisements for big companies/designers and even video games, an example of a video advert is one for call of duty black ops 2, and in this video they used some “YouTube celebrities” such as fps Russia to advertise their new game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wIZp_E2CxQ

Designers who post their content to YouTube are even able to have making videos for people to watch as their full time job, the way this is possible is also because of advertisements, companies are able to advertise their business by the side of a video even before a video can be shown, so that could also be a way that big designers can use types of media to show off their company/design.

YouTube can also be accessed on several platforms and since the invention of smart devices and smart phones this has made it easier for media to be shared and not only shown but also filmed from these devices but anything with a camera that can film with can be used to record media and with inventions such as YouTube it has made it possible to share the media people have filmed.

With media sharing sites such as YouTube makes it possible for anyone with a camera or recording software to become a designer to share their digital content, now anyone on YouTube can have their own custom channel to put their projects and media on for people to see all around the world and it also makes it possible for them to become big designers of digital content, now this is alot different since before the internet the way for someone to share there media was to go through big movie companies to even have a chance on sharing their media, also before the internet designers wouldn’t be able to share their media over the world but it would of been shown in cinemas/theatres, even the costs for the equipment would’ve been extremely high, but now with inventions such as HD cameras it is extremely easy to record media, and now you don’t need to go to big companies to get a film or some kind of media approved, you can just upload it quickly and easily to the media sharing sites.

With the internet and media sharing sites there is now a way to even Live stream to the internet and people are able to watch media live when it is being streamed from anywhere in the world this has recently only become possible, when the internet was first invented there were no videos on the internet and the speeds made it difficult if not impossible to stream media to the internet and only now with technological improvements now using wifi to connect to the internet and with faster internet speeds it is easier than ever to stream/upload and watch media over the internet.

There are many different types of digital content which media can be viewed from here are a few examples:

·         DVD’s

·         Adverts

·         E-mail attachments

·         Smart devices

·         Media sharing sites (YouTube)

·         Social networking sites (Facebook)

With media people have filmed it is now even easier to even edit the media so not only can people record but they are also able to make edits to make films, series and even interactive games, software’s such as Adobe after effects and Adobe premiere just as a few examples but with big companies making software’s for people being able to edit their footage, and then after they have finished editing there are choices for multiple exports such as .avi .flv.  .mpeg  .mpeg4 etc. But with all of these different formats there are formats that will export to most devices and with this it makes it more convenient for people to watch and share.

The digital age of new designs such as tablets smart devices has made it possible for people to become designers easily, before these inventions then the only possible way to do this was via expensive equipment and using types of media such as VHS and a DVD’s  for media so this was expensive and a difficult process to go through, and now it’s simple and easy to share media as with inventions such as YouTube anyone can just film and upload quickly at a very low or even no price to pay at all.

Although YouTube is probably the biggest video sharing site there are multiple websites which anyone can share media to such as social networking sites like Facebook means you can share videos to your friends and family there is also just video embedding on any website so you can also put video footage and players on your own website, with these different websites and now with different devices such as tablets being able to access the internet means that most websites now have a mobile version so people are able to watch media or look at it on the go so this is also something that makes it more convenient for people to watch media and now this also makes it easier to watch media.

With big companies like Apple and android bringing out new tablets and smart devices it is also making it easier for people to watch and record media products for people not only locally to see but also worldwide,  also in this day and age smart phones smart devices and tablets are the most popular technology around and also the most common for media to be viewed and shared from, however people being able to record media from these devices can be good and bad:

Good:

The reason this could be good is for the news and how recording and sharing media will help spread news but this could also be used for where places could have been hit by things like earthquakes so the media could help spread the news of what’s happening and even get people to come and help, and especially with media sharing sites this also helps with millions of people using these sites daily.

Bad:

The reason this could be bad is because of privacy and with more ways for people being able to record and share media easily then it becomes more difficult for things to stay private with media becoming public now the site wikileaks shown video footage of the war and a gunner from a helicopter shooting on civilians, and now with websites like wikileaks its harder to believe the news and even keep news from the general public when its easy to access on the internet whereas before the internet there was really no other way on seeing what happened in places like warzones than on the news and you had to believe what they said on the news as there was no other way of finding out, this is called the “hypodermic needle theory” this theory is basically you believed what you were told when it was from the media before the internet was invented but now anyone can record the media and upload it for the world to see.

Overall it would seem that now it is extremely easy for designers to use video technology to enhance the users interactive experience in many ways, and if technology keeps advancing like it is then it will only become easier, with more software/hardware and equipment becoming available and invented  even with the invention of 3d and blu ray showing how much video technology is progressing and this is only going to become more available for the public to buy and experience, and with that more and more people are able to become designers, especially with the digital age growing and more people using interactive media to help enhance the users interactive experience and this will only become easier to do and also cheaper.

Reflective analysis for the interactive youtube game:

So for this assignment we were working in groups to make an interactive game for YouTube and the game had to be related to an EA game so in our group we chose mirrors edge, the reason we chose this was because it was an easy game to base it on as we wouldn’t need any props so we already saved on money, we were going to think about doing battlefield 3 but obviously if we were using fake guns then we could’ve gotten in trouble with the police because of it.

As the producer I found it quite a difficult role to have since I have never been a producer before so figuring out how to manage the group and the groups work at first was difficult to do as I was still thinking on how to do certain things as the producer, I found being the producer was boring at times as most of it was just all arranging work from the group, updating certain parts and making sure we did all the work on time, but as the assignment went on I started finding it easier to do with time management of the group.

I enjoyed doing this assignment as it was something different to what we have been doing recently however as the time went on I started to find some things that would annoy me about this assignment, really the main issue I started to have was the fact I had to rely on people to get work done, and to meet up to do the filming this was pretty difficult to do as we were working in groups we hadn’t worked in before so I didn’t really know what to expect, however this assignment has made me realise that I prefer doing solo work as I know what to do, if it’s finished, how much I have to do etc. Whereas in a group you need to make sure everyone’s done all of the work.

I think that the hardest part about this assignment was all the paperwork, as I was put as the producer I had to make sure all the paperwork was finished and up to date and all of it was all together, and the easiest part about this assignment was probably the filming, since I wasn’t the camera crew I was just offering advice on shots and camera angles,I would say the filming went well because we didn’t have any difficulties filming nothing went wrong so that made it easier to do, Im glad we had storyboards made up though as they helped alot as we had shots planned which Dan Vann had thought of, this made the filming easy so we weren’t stuck thinking of what to film, one part about the filming was getting the equipment, we had to fill out a risk assessment online before we could book it out, I asked for help on the risk assessment as this is the first one I have done myself, but learning how to do it has helped although it was quite difficult to do after some help it was easy to understand so that should help with future assignments with booking equipment out, another part of the filming which was the most difficult part to do was coming up with the decisions, it was more of the decision to go one way or another, and the difficult part of that was deciding how that actually affected the game itself, I feel maybe we should’ve had some more decisions in the interactive game but they were difficult to come up with so we couldnt think of that many, maybe we couldve had more decisions if we looked more into research of other interactive games so that would be one thing I would do differently is to do some more research of other interactive games and ones that related to our game aswell.

Although getting the group together and getting everything done was quite difficult in the end it all turned out pretty good as we all knew what we were doing so we were all able to get on with our roles in the assignment which made this easy to bring together at the end of the assignment.  

In this assignment the essay that we had to do was easy to do as it was very similair to my first essay which was to do with how interactive media has changed the world and this essay was very similair to that on what I had to write about and I was able to relate some parts from that essay to this one.

With the editing of the film I wasn’t really involved in I was able to offer some advice and give my opinion on certain parts, but overall I would say the edit went well with choices made for it, how it looks and the decision screens, the reason I wasn’t really involved in the editing was because Ryan Mitchell and Josh Spencer were working on the edits, we used Adobe Premiere CS6 to edit our footage, I don’t really know how to use that software all that much Im still in the process of learning it so that could be another reason why I wasn’t all that involved in the editing process.

Overall I would say this assignment has gone well with some difficult parts along the way but we were able to overcome any issues such as working together getting all the work together and making sure that all the work gets done, and I was also able to learn a few things such as learning how to do the risk assessments and also during the assignment I was able to start learning about Adobe Premiere CS6, I enjoyed certain aspects of this assignment like the filming going out and deciding on where and how to film, my favourite part of the assignment was doing the filming and working with people on the filming and my least favourite part of this assignment was working with a group whereas the first time working on an assignment with other people I found it good this time working with a group and getting everything done makes me think that I enjoy the solo projects more mainly because of the time management.

The bone tool in flash

The bone tool in actionscript 3:

so for this afternoon Julian was teaching us about the bone tool in flash cs6 with as3:

the bone tool makes things easier to animate such as models you have made in flash and for this we made a body with arms legs hands and a body and we taken a face of someone cut it out and put the model together, then using the bone tool I linked up the limbs and added constraints.




The circles you can see are transparent but come up as blue and these were used for places to move the body so the head, the left arm and the right arm.















the constrains stopped the limbs from moving too far so this basically added some realism to the body, these are the settings used on the bones:


enabling the joint rotation meant that I was able to constrain the limbs to stop them from moving too far, the minimum and maximum setting was how far in angles that you could move the limbs.


of course the constrains aren't really needed but it does just add some realism to it to stop them from moving to far, however when first sorting out the constrains I changed them a few times to see what would work the best and what would I guess seem more realistic to stop the limbs from moving too far and too little.


this is a link to the tutorial I used:

part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH8jABrWhfw

part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_XI0lpJO7o

link to the .swf:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rk5rqpr1c31amo0/Untitled-1.swf

Spinning cube

Today we worked more with adobe after effects and we made a cube and animated it so it would spin move positions, we used different tools and in this one we used the camera orbit tool to move around the shape to make the actual cube, we also used the "pickwhip" which could link all the shapes into 1 null object which was helpful when animating, I think the pickwhip tool is like a group tool so you can add all the layers to 1 object.

Another tool we used was the transform tool inside the layers to change and edit the shape during the animation, changing the shape the positioning and the size of the cube.


The hardest part about this was actually making the cube and positioning them all correctly so it looked like a cube.

downloads page

so for the downloads ive added a link to an amazon page where you can buy the amazing spiderman however getting it to work was a big pain considering.

First I tried to get the link working so when you clicked on a picture it would open to an external link, but after trying a few different ideas still nothing and that was getting me kind of frustrated in the fact it wasn't working, so then I just decided ok I'll just have to use text, and I know its nothing fancy and it annoyed me that I couldn't make it look nicer but i'm just glad it's working.

Flash work

So today i've been working on making the .fla file smaller and trying to add a video and some background music to the website, so with the size I started with 18.3mb and after a bit of frustration and finally figuring out what I needed to do I was able to shrink that down to just over 3mb and I managed this because I was able to compress the images and cleaned up the library in my .fla file to make it smaller, now all I need to do is add the music and try to get the video in the website without messing up the size of the site, however this will be difficult because the video is over 11mb and the music is over 6mb so I'm going to try and find out how to compress the files to make the website not increase in size.

so the video actually didn't change the size so right now my website is around 3.65mb with 2 videos in,  one on the main page and the other on the images and video page, they are both trailers for the amazing spiderman.

I have decided not to add music as it would make the file size too large and I didn't want to try and figure something out for an hour when I could be working on other parts of this assignment.

general flash work update

So for the film website I've been working more with flash and I've been looking at how to make a preloader for the website, so I decided the best way to find out how to make one is to go onto youtube and see if I could find a tutorial and I did:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70hYleZge40

So I've been following that tutorial and for the loader vector I used an amazing spider man spider:

before I got to this stage I had to crop the image, use the magic wand tool to get rid of the black background and make the spider smaller.